The widespread availability of the Internet and mobile communications has ushered in an era of convenience and productivity never before seen. At the same time, however, the widespread use of data communications has strained both the capacity of communications channels used for data communications and the telecommunications equipment, such as network servers and gateways that service those channels. As users of phones, computers, and other client devices continue to download more content (such as data, web site content, email, etc.), service and content providers demand greater efficiency within their data communications so that they do not exceed channel capacity and equipment limitations.
One source of inefficient data communications stems from web (Internet) browsing. As a current example, when a user of a client device attempts to navigate to a web page, the client device's browser will send a request for the page, and a server may initially return an HTML representation of the page as an HTTP message. The HTML code might include address links to objects, such as images, that are meant to be displayed or presented within the web page. The initial HTTP message response will normally contain, in the header of the message, the content size of the page as sent, but not the size of the other linked objects on the page. Subsequently, the browser will normally send additional content requests directed to the address links in order to obtain the linked objects. This method has shortcomings, particularly in the mobile client environment, where client devices may have limited resources, such as finite memory and processor capabilities. Currently, a client device must get the original HTML page and then attempt to obtain the linked objects before the client device realizes that it is not able to process the page due to, for example, memory or processor constraints. Consequently, the client device uses up significant device resources, radio-frequency (“RF”) and network resources, and the user's time trying to display a page which may not even be fully renderable on the client device.